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SKETCH 



GEN. GEORGE H. THOMAS, 



Gen. JOHN WATTS DrPEYSTER, 



REPRESENTATIVE MEN, 



(Third Edition,) 



A Biographical Worh, 



PUBLISHED BT 



ATLANTIC PUBLISHING CO., 



NEW YORK. 



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U.S.A. 




GEORGE II. THOMAS. 

BY GEN. J. WATTS ke PEYSTEE. 

HE poet-laureate of England, in his " Ode on the Death 
of the Duke of Wellington," depicts, in the simplest but 
strongest language, the characteristics of a perfect repub- 
lican hero. These, in their strict application, however 

merited in degree, belonged not to the " Iron Duke,'" but to the 

" Eock of Chickamauga : " 

"Rich in saying common sense. 
And, as the greatest only are, 
In his simplioity sublime, 

voice from -which their omens all men drew. 

********* 

"0 iron nerve to tnio occasion true, 
fall'n at length that tower of strength, 

Which stood four square to all the winds that blew. 

********* 

"Such was he,' his work is done; 

But while the races of manliind endure. 

Let his great example stand. 

Colossal seen of every land. 

And keep the soldier firm, the statesman pure, 

Till in all lands and thro' all human story. 

The x^ath of duty be the way to glory." 

Eeflecting upon this magnificent poem, whose further quota- 
tion is forbidden by restricted space, the critic would find its imme- 
diate application utterly impossible to any popular hero, until he 
studies the career of Greorge H. Thomas. He alone, iu the present 
age, like Gustavus Adolphus, and his favorite pupil Torstenson, in 
all past time of which we have authentic records, are the only ones 
strictly worthy of its most exalted passages. 

Tliat the following pages present no exaggerated conception of 
the attributes of George 11. Thomas, is demonstrated by the language 

545 



GEORGE H. THOMAS. 

applied to liim in various biographies and in obituaries called forth 
by his untimely decease. In these he is invariably characterized as 
tinexeeptionable in his personal punty, his tried ability, and his un- 
deviating success, his unfailing judgment, his noble modesty, his 
unsurpassed fidelity, and, by all who know the facts, b}' his astound- 
ing forbearance under the wrongs and injustice to wViich he was sub- 
jected by an ungrateful country ; finally by politicians steeped in 
selfishness, and by a ]}eo\Ae then utterly incapable of measuring or 
taking in the greatness of the man who was serving them to the ex- 
tent of his ability, while all, but a small minority, were ignoring or 
misconceiving the vast extent and influence of the services of the 
man to whom, after all, the t^alvation of the nation is due more than 
to any other citizen or soldier. 

Although Virginia, " mother of presidents,"' is the natal soil of 
so many great men — among these Madison, Monroe, Taylor, Hani- 
son, Scott, Clay, and even the " Sage of Monticello," and although 
thereon was born and bred the so-styled fiather of his (this) country, 
nevertheless, neither tlie soil nor the peculiar race of " Old Dominion " 
ever produced a greater son than the hero of this biography, George 
H. Thomas, It is very doubtful if, taking all things into considera- 
tion, Virginia can boast in George Washington as exemplary a 
citizen as the modest, unselfish martyr to duty, the victor of the only 
immediately decisive battle of the great American conflict " In- 
deed," remarks one who knew Thomas intimately, "Washington was 
'his superior in nothing, while as a general he was gi-eatly inferior." 

All the virtues and general abilities ascribed to the mythical 
Virginian of a centmy since, all the virtues and military excellence 
credited to the idol of southern worship in the jjresent generation, 
all these belonged, in reality, in a greater degree to the man whom 
his generation does not seem to have been capable of appreciating, 
on account of the very simplicity which was the peculiar character- 
istic of the spotless George H. Thomas. 

Thomas, like the wonderful Gioi-gione, of whom Titian was at 
once the pupil and rival, the first true painter of the New Birth of 
the most resplendent school of coloring — only exists in the minds of 
the majority of his countrymen as a great name, although he is the 
greatest this country can boast, not excepting the ideal Washington. 
Of George H. Thomas it may truly be said again, as of Giorgione, "the 
inheritor of unfulfilled renown," "the intrepid worker," ihat even 
although criticism has reduced the number of his easel pictures 

546 



GEORGE H. THOMAS. 

(works of his own hand) to half a dozeo, even so tlie great undeniable 
individual achievements of our best general, may be counted upon the 
fingers of one hand, while it is utterly impossible to calculate the 
many grand results which he influenced, the many doubtful collis- 
ions which his inspiration converted into assured successes. And 
even as the master hand of Giorgione is scarcely perceptible in his 
once resplendent frescoes, destroyed by the damp and exhalations of 
the Lagunes, even so the effect of the presence, influence, and judg- 
ment of Thomas on many momentous fields, are lost in a great mea- 
sure through the misconception, the obtuseness, the hollowness of 
popular judgment in regard to the real, the sublime. 

To Thomas belongs the Sunday " annihilating " victory of Mill 
Spring, the first success of any consequence beyond the Appalach- 
ians, the dawn of hope west of the great eastern battle-ground — Vir- 
ginia ; the other Sunday success fought on the " River of Death," 
which gave to him the title of the " Rock of Chickamauga ; " the 
tenacious defense of the key to the portal and store- houses of the 
Confederacy, Chattanooga, in which he made good his promise, 
" "We will hold the town till we starve ; " the carrying of Mission or 
Missionaries' Ridge, at the Confederate centre, opposite " Orchard 
Knob," or "Indian Hill," which constituted the grand feature of the 
second battle of Chattanooga proper ; and the supreme triumph at 
Nashville, without a parallel on our continent, the only battle of the 
war (except Mill Spring on a vastly smaller scale) which resulted in 
the annihilation of an opposing army. 

Like Gustavus Adolphus, whom he resembled in every vii'tue, 
and in every grand pre-eminent cliaracteristic, he was taken away 
because he was too good to be left, and because, if oui* people could 
have lifted up their souls to conceive his ; if their minds could only 
have taken him in as he was ; they would have neglected all other 
idols, and made him the object of their devoted admiration. 

In using the word " greatest " to designate Thomas,* it must be 
taken in the sense in which it was applied to " the foremost man of 

* It may be interesting to recall in this connection, that Everett, in his so-often- 
repeated oration upon the career and character of Washington, undertook to demon- 
strate that his greatness consisted, not in the predominance of any one characteristic, 
but in the poise, adjustment, and equal bearing of each and all. If this was true of 
Washington, it was more than true of Thomas, who, under greater provocations 
than ever Washington experienced, always retained his serenity except when wrong 
was done to his soldiers. Always alive to injustice to others, his unselfish patriot- 
ism made him oblivious of everything he himself was called on to suflfer. 

647 



GEORGE H. THOMAS. 

all this modern world," Gustavus Adolpbus, whose whole, mental, 
moral, and pliysical, was compared to a cube with the motto " cequalis 
semper et ereclas" as tlae only symbol which could convey the per- 
fect solidity, exact poise, nice adjustment, and equal distribution of 
all that was necessary to enter into the make-up of the " God-like 
men," on whom common mortals build their trust. 

While contemplating the preparation of this sketch, it was im- 
possible not to recognize from the first that the only fitting parallel 
to Thomas was Gustavus Adolphus, " one who was never dismayed 
or puzzled from early manliood till the hour of his death." This 
parallel holds good not only as regards all the virtues of a citizen, 
and all the qualities of a soldier, but likewise in the phj'sical devel- 
opments and peculiar traits of the noblest American and the pre-emi- 
nent Swede. Both were as remarkable for the manly massiveness of 
their heads and figures as for their indomitable intrepidity, energy, 
common sense, and forbearance. Both were alike wonderful in their 
personal influence, and, it is stated by an eye-witness, himself a dis- 
tinguished Major-General, that in the gi-aud meeting of officers and 
generals at Chicago in 1868, when the uproar was at its height, and 
neither the endeavors of Grant or Sherman had any effect to still 
the commotion, then Thomas arose and there was peace, and he spoke 
his few calm earnest words to an audience which listened to him 
with a demeanor and respect tliat can scarcely be qualified by any 
other word than veneration. 

The face of Thomas in repose wore a severer expression than that 
of Gustavus, but nothing could have been more winning than the 
former's smile. As for his voice it was as gentle as a woman's, and 
listeners often deceived themselves as to the force of his condemna- 
tion of all those who, like McOlellan, wasted the lives of our soldiers, 
and the treasure of the country, by the calm tones in which the 
judgment was uttered. This was particularly the case in reviewing 
the " Youpg ISTapoleon's " peninsular campaign, and previous iner- 
tion. Then the current of the " deep damnation " flowed from the 
lips of Thomas with the majestic tone and volume of a mighty 
river. 

The more the candid mind reflects, the more, indeed, it will be 
convinced that, if this country ever produced a perfect character, if 
history reveals to us anything like a perfect character, if the human 
mind could divest itself of prejudice, or discern the tnie metal through 
the lacquer laid on more or less thick by Fortune, our countrymen 

548 



GEORGE H. THOMAS. 

would recognize in Thomas, the greatest and best man our institu- 
tions have developed. The writer felt it and said it while Thomas 
was living ; he feels it, he sees it, he must express it now that his re- 
mains, without a national monument, sleep beneath the soil that his 
solid virtues and capacities preserved. Yes I the genius of Thomas 
preserved! for Thomas not only possessed rare genius, but his ge- 
nius was combined with equally remarkable talents. Genius creates ; 
talents apply powers or forces already existing. Genius is the imme- 
diate inspiration of the Deity. Like original light, it bursts forth re- 
sponsive to the demand of the moment or the command of necessity. 
It is born, full grown, equipped, perfect, like Minerva — i e. practical 
wisdom — from the brain of the Supreme. It knows no increment, it 
bridges the gulf which arrests talent. Talent, often of very slow devel- 
opment, is the child of study, experience, and application. To cite 
two great examples of these gifts, Conde had genius ; Tiirenne, his 
great rival, had talent. Genius is the lightning flash of inherent 
common sense, evoked by the concussion of the moment, and Thom- 
as demonstrated that he possessed C'onde's genius when he won his 
first battle at Mill Spring, and Tui'enne's talent when he achieved 
the greatest triumph of oui- war at Nashville, which decided the fate 
of the nation ; Nashville, the pivot on which the fortunes of the 
great American conflict turned ; Nashville, the great decisive bat- 
tle which wiped oi;t an army ; Nashville, which made the capitula- 
tion of Appomatox Court House a possibility. Had Hood been the vic- 
tor under the walls of the capital of Tennessee, the war would have 
begun anew, and our over-burthened people, like the maityrs of Re- 
velation, would even now be crying, " How long." Thomas has been 
accused of being slow; but, like the mills of fate, though he ground 
slowly, he ground exceedingly strong, and surpassingly sure. He 
was the " Thought," " II Pensiero,'' of every army with which he 
sei'ved, and, whether second or first in command, " a strong tower," 
" eine feste burg" on which men leaned, even as the army did, on the 
field of the 19th, 20th Sepiember, 1863, upon the " Bock of Chicka- 
mauga." 

General Thomas was born July 31st, 1816, on his fathers plant 
ation in Southampton County, one of the four extreme south-east 
ern counties of Virginia. He sprang from, and was connected with 
the oldest and best families of the State. His father, John Thomas, 
was of English, or, more remotely, of Welsh descent, and his mother 
Elizabeth Rochelle, was of an old and honorable Huguenot family, 

549 



GEORGE H. THOMAS. 

This was a curious mingling of blood, and if " blood will tell," as 
the proverb reads, the union of these two races, both remarkable for 
peculiar qualities, developed and concentrated their strength in our 
greatest general. 

Thomas, in his aspect and build, was a perfect example of that 
race which, originally known as the Briton, is now almost entirely 
confined to Wales, and the ancient Armorica, present Brittany in 
France. The writer has met with individuals almost identical as to 
physical characteristics in France, but more particularly in the 
French navy. This was his paternal race. Consequently, accord- 
ing to psycho-pliysiological laws, Thomas, as he derived his physi- 
cal conformation from his father, must have inherited his mental and 
moral characteristics from his mother, and, in accordance with this 
theory — borne out by the observation of a life time, as well as by 
ethnological study — his greatness must be credited to his maternal 
origin, the Huguenot This, almost altogether Gothic in its origin, 
gave a moral, mental, and male force to France of which the French 
nation are acknowledged, by wholesale murder and Papal persecu- 
tion, " to have lost the very seed." It is no vain boast nor empty 
assertion to claim that the Uuguenot race* has constituted the leaven 
of the modern world. It has directly or indirectly produced the 
greatest soldiers who have illustrated the past five centuries. The 
effect of the French protestaut emigration has been seriously and 
gloriously felt from Sweden north to Algiers south ; from Moscow 
east to Limerick west To it we credit Coligni, greatest of French 
citizens ; Duquesne, greatest of French admirals ; William III., 
greatest of Eoyal reformers ; Frederick the Great, greatest of Royal 
generals. Ethnological and historical investigators attribute the de- 
cadence of France to its expulsion ; the universal progress of hu- 
manity to its dispersion ; and, as if the blessing of God accompanied 
its exile, wherever papalism drove it, every nation that welcomed 
and fostered it, in accordance with the hospitality and opportunities 

* To prove that this is no exaggerated view of the loighty influence of the Hugue- 
not blood, the reader is referred to a number of standard works, but particularly to 
the " Histoire de France," by the celebrated J. Michelet, also to "The Prussian 
Eace, ethnologically considered," by Jean Louis Armand de Quatrefages, London, 
1872, particularly chapter viii., "French immigration in the seventeenth century." 
Hundreds of works might be cited, but these are accessible to all, as the latter ap- 
peared originally in the Eevue des Deux Monde^, article VII. " M. Guizot and the 
failiire of French Protestantism," from the Spectator, republished in No. 1585, 
Oct. 24:th, 1874, of Littel's Living Age. 

550 



GEORGE H. THOMAS. 

afforded it, that nation has advanced in greatness and power with 
the strides of a giant. Moreover, in the case before us, if another 
proverb be true, that no great men are issued from any but the 
womb of a great mother, it is but just to concede to the Huguenot 
parent the spring and force of the illustrious career of one who most 
honored the national uniform by the wearing of it. 

As Major-General Geo. W. Cullum's "Biographical Eegister of 
the West Point Graduates " furnishes a detailed statement of the early 
service of George H. Thomas, it is- needless to say more than that, 
after graduating July 1st, 1840, he served with distinction against 
the Seminole Indians in Florida; in the Mexican war ; and down to 
1860 against the Western Indians. At the breaking out of the late 
Civil War, he was Lieutenant-Colonel of the 2d U. S. Cavalry, and 
Colonel 3d May, 1861. August 17th, 1861, he was made Brigadier- 
General of Volunteers in the " Department of the Cumberland," and, 
November 30th, 1861, he was placed in command of a division of 
the "Army of the Ohio." It was while occupying this position 
that he won a victory, 19th -20th January, 1862, which may be 
said to have been the first clear dawn of hope at the West. There 
had been, it is true, a few faint indications of the coming light, 
but this was the real upburst of the sun from behind the mountains 
of gloom, diffusing the brilliancj'' of a day which was to know a 
still more glorious sunset in the crowning triumph of Thomas at 
Nashville, 

In regard to the battle of Mill Spring there were some remark- 
able circumstances which have never been brought before the pub- 
lic. By the way, the title of this battle is a misnomer, for Mill 
Spring was on the south side of the river where there was no fight- 
ing, whereas the collision occurred rather at Beech Grove, or on Fish- 
ing Creek, near Logan's Cross Koads, names more appositelj' applied 
to this engagement by the Confederates. The perfect system of out- 
post duty inaugurated by Thomas prevented such a surprise on 
this occasion as at Shiloh or Pittsburg Landing. His perfect appre- 
ciation of the value of time decided the next phase of this important 
operation, and his common sense converted a side issue into a deci- 
sive master-stroke. 

On this occasion Thomas had an opportunity to display that 
exquisite common sense, which, in all men who possess it, but es- 
pecially in him, amounts to what the world considers genius. Grif- 
fith is right in saying that whenever genius can and does discover 

661 



GEORGE H. THOMAS. 

and apply a remedy at a life or death crisis, it is God himself working 
through and in men. 

At Mill Spring. Thomas knew that his or any green troops were in- 
capable of manoeuvering, especially under fire, and he determined that 
no attempt to make a single useless movement should mar the 
grand result. He told the writer that he placed himself, so to 
speak, like a marker on the line of battle, and saw or felt each regi- 
ment file by into its proper or assigned position. Then he faced 
them, indicated the enemy, and bade them go in and do their duty. 
And, filled with the inspiration of their leader's calm assurance of 
victory, they did both. This conduct on the part of Thomas was 
genius, for it is genius to comprehend exactly of how much a body 
of troops is capable, and it is greater genius so to handle them as to 
get out of them all that the leader determines they shall do, and the 
troops, through confidence in him, realizing the words of Virgil, 
^'' possunt quia jiosse videniur" are reciprocal!}' able to do. 

At Mill Spring (repeating, to emphasize), the manner in whicli 
Thomas brought up, posted, and fought his new levies, was exactly 
the same kind of manifestation of genius as that display of common 
sense by which L. iEmilius Paulus conveited the victory, all but 
won by the plialanx at Pydna, into the final overthrow, instead, of 
the Greek power, thei-e, 22d June, B. C. 168. This common sense 
was as much genius as the conception of the oblique order by which 
Epaminondas triumphed at Leuctra and Mantinoea, and acquired im- 
perishable renown ; as much genius as the command "Jieri/aciem 
miliies" which decided Pharsalia and the destinies of the world. 

At Pydna the charging phalanx, with their sarissas (pikes twenty 
feet long) locked in the shields of the two front lines of the Roman 
legions, compressed into one by the impact, was bearing all before 
it. Suddenly, a happj' inspiration, or impulse of instinct, or exer- 
tion of common sense, prompted the Roman general to withdraw the 
alternate maniple or company, so as to render the pressure or resist- 
ance to tlie even front of the phalanx irregular and unequal. The 
result was as sudden almost as the conception, the order, and its exe- 
cution. The previous level front of the Greek spears pressing on, 
at once accommodated itself, responding to the unequal resistance, 
and from a straight, became a crooked, sinuous, or undulating line, pre- 
senting gaps and exposed flanks, like tlie teeth of a saw. Into these 
gaps the Roman legionaries (swordsmen) cut in with their short, deadly 
weapons, against which the long unmanageable Greek spears were 

552 




GEORGE H. THOMAS. 

helpless. Thus, the common sense of L. ^milius Paulus decided the 
fate of Greece at a blow, whereas an hour before the Roman legions 
accounted themselves nearly if not actually defeated. 

The same kind of common sense, which amounts to genius, il- 
lustrated Robert, the Bruce, perhaps under every aspect " the greatest 
of Scotchmen." He knew that every success won over his brave 
countrymen by the Southron was due to those English archers, of 
whora it was said that " each one of them carried under his belt twelve 
Scottish lives." This remark referred to the number of arrows each 
bowman had disposed ready to his hand on going into action. It is 
well to remember, here, that the greatest victories which England ever 
won were due to these very archers, a militia, a reality, not a name, 
which has had no parallel and only a faint imitation in the Norwegian 
skating battalions, the Tyrolese riflemen, the Swiss national levies, 
and the frontiersmen of America. 

Appreciating, this peril, Robert Bruce had a body of light cavalry, 
ready at hand, which he let loose upon the English archers as soon 
as they came into action, and these " rough and ready " riders cut up 
the bowmen before they could be supported, and thereby won the 
decisive battle of Bannockburn, which achieved the independence of 
Scotland. Strange to say, with such an example before them, no 
subsequent Scottish commander ever profited by the lesson, and 
crushing defeat, following upon similar national disaster, again and 
again, as at Hallidon Hill, Nevilles Cross, at Flodden, and on other 
fatal fields, entailed the ruin of Scotland, and placed it at the mercy 
of England. Just what L. ^milius Paulus was at Pydna, Bruce 
at BannockbuiTi, and the Regent Murray at Crookstone,* Thomas 
was at Mill Spring. 

Men judge of greatness by success, which Albert Sydney John- 
son said " is a hard rule, but a just one." If this nation remembers 
that Thomas never failed; that whether as a subordinate, as a second 
in command, as an ^^Adlaius,'" or ^^Alter-ego" or as Commander-in- 
chief, he never failed, — what estimate must the American people 

* At Crookstone, 13th May, 1568, the key point of the field was the pass through 
the village of Langside. To win this coin of vantage, the adherents of Mary, Queen 
of Scots, hurried forward and were met by the troops of the Kegeut Murray, equally 
aware of the advantages of the locality. The Kegent, however, a cousiimmate soldier, 
while urging on his cavah-y, had the foresight to mount a footman behind each 
trooper. These infantry were better adapted to maintain the position than mounted 
troops, and, thus brought up, held it. This stratagem was one of the chief causes of 
the Eegent's success, which cost Mary throne and countrj', and eventually her life. 

653 



GEORGE H. THOMAS. 

put upon such a man ? Kverj other general during the war, at one 
time or another, met with reverses or failures. Criticism can debit 
no failure to Thomas, — envy no reverse. What does this prove? 
What else but that he was a God-chosen instrument, and, as such, 
the grand figure — the first man of the war ! 

" Oh happy the man around whose brow he (death) wreaths the 
bloody laurels in the glitter of victory." 

The movements which led to the battle of Mill Spring were out 
of the general i^lan of campaign on either side, and produced by the 
independent advance of a detached force of Confederates, consisting 
of two brigades of infantry, a battery, and a small cavalry brigade, 
to invade Kentucky from Tennessee. At that time, January, 1862, 
the Eebellion was very strong. Its front line stretched along the 
border Slave States, Tennessee in its full possession, and Kentucky 
seriously threatened with absorption. McClellan was Commander- 
in-chief, and the vicious " anaconda " strategy of attacking with nu- 
merous independent armies along a thousand-mile frontier, was 
going into operation. The Confederate Generals, Crittenden and 
Zollicofifer, under these cii'cumstances marched into Kentucky to 
the south bank of the Cumberland, and finally crossed it and camped 
at Beech Grove, some little distance north, intrenching their posi- 
tion. General Thomas, with one brigade, had advanced meanwhile 
to Logan's Cross Eoads, a few miles north, feeling for his enemy. 
He halted at tlie fork of two roads, the Somerset and Mill Spring 
roads, and awaited the coming up to his help of Schoepfs brigade 
from Somerset. Rainy weather and bad roads detained Schoepf, 
and Crittenden very wisely decided to attack Thomas, while he 
himself was two to one — 5,000 (Greeley), 8,000(" Army of the Cum- 
berland,")— 6,700 Confederates to at most 3,500 Unionists in presence. 
He advanced north in two lines — Zollicoflfer's brigade leading, 
Carroll's following, most of his cavalry in reserve, and two compa- 
nies skirmishing in advance. They found but two Union regiments, 
the Fourth Kentucky, and Tenth Indiana, with a battery and 
squadron to oppose them at first 

The Confederates had marched at midnight, attacked their foe 
four to one at dawn, but not by sui-prise. Thomas, with green 
troops to handle, knew the necessity of avoiding surprises ; his far 
outstretching infantry, and still more advanced cavalry pickets, gave 
timely warning, and the two regiments, with the battery, held their 
foes in check till eight o'clock. By that time the Second Minnesota 

554 




GEORGE H. THOMAS. 

had come up witli the Ninth Ohio, and the four regiments were 
marched up in line, and not only held the enemy, but finally drove him 
back. One more regiment, the Twelfth Kentucky, reached the field 
while the front was still hotly engaged, and Thomas put it on the 
left, flanking Crittenden's right, at the same time the Ninth Ohio 
charged Crittenden's left. Thus, swept in on both wings, the Confed- 
erates gave way, and fled in confusion. Zollicoffer was killed, the 
whole force chased into camp, which they abandoned in the night, 
while Thomas captured twelve guns — two on the field, ten inside 
the works (eleven more were spiked and thrown into the Cumber- 
land river), one hundred and fifty wagons, fifteen hundred horses 
and mules, tents, etc. ; in fact, every stick and rag that belonged to 
his enemy, except their clothes and muskets with which they fled. 

The battle was gained with green troops, by putting them in a 
long line without reserves, extending the wings and flanking the 
enemy by the simplest of all movements — a wheel inwards (the win- 
ning tactics of Cannae by Hannibal, and of Zama by Scipio) ; in fact, 
by overwhelming them by a more extensive concentric develop- 
ment and consequent weight of fire. It was lost by Crittenden 
through inferior practice of his artillery, and fighting on too small a 
front. Green troops in reserve to support other green troops proved 
useless. The first reverse cowed them, and they only swelled the 
crowd of fugitives. Put in one line and used as Thomas utilized 
his, they must have won the battle from sheer weight of fire. As 
it was, they lost heart at ZoUicoffer's death, fled in confusion, laid 
Tennessee open to our arms, and, worst of all, gave the Union forces 
the advantage of a decided victory, which raised their morale, and 
lowered that of the Confederates to an extent from which they never 
recovered afterwards. 

It is scarcely possible to estimate too highly the effects of this 
success, one of the most important, if not actually the most import- 
ant, achieved by the national arms. It broke the line of the Con- 
federates in Kentucky, opened a door of deliverance for East Ten- 
nessee, and prepared a way for that series of successful operations 
by which, very soon after, the invaders were expelled from both 
States. Well might the Secretary of War conclude his thanks in 
orders by declaring, " In the prompt and spirited movements and 
daring at Mill Spring, the nation will realize its hopes." 

And yet a subordinate came very near depriving Thomas of the 
credit of this triumph, through the prejudice, as yet entertained, 

555 



GEORGE H. THOMAS, 

toward loyal Virginians. There is no necessity of reviewing the 
scandal, but on this occasion even Lincoln was unjust, and when he 
learned the truth, he was still unwilling to reward' the victor as 
he deserved. The President, when urged to repair an injustice 
founded on a mistake, said : " Thomas is a Virginian, he can afford to 
wait ; " and he did have to wait, receiving, like Kearny, his promo- 
tion among a batcli of others who had accomplished nothing com- 
mensurate to his triumph at Mill Spring. This fact the writer bad 
from Thomas himself; and, although the whole occurrence was re- 
lated without aspei'it}', the tone and manner demonstrated that even 
in his placid bosom the wrong must have been deeply felt at the 
time ; and that lapse of time had not effaced it from his memory, or 
softened its bitterness. 

Seldom, if ever, in the history of a nation and a great war, has 
a pre-eminent citizen and soldier been subjected from first to last to 
such an unintermittent sequence of neglects or injustices as George 
H. Thomas. The tardy and insufficient recognition of his saving 
success at Mill Spring has been already referred to. This he strongly 
resented, although he bore it with the same calm dignity with which 
he continued to suffer while serving, with a fidelity almost unexam- 
pled, under similar provocations. The reader is A'ct to learn how 
the government continued to pursue the same course of injustice to- 
wards its most faithful and capable servant. While others, who 
had accomplished comparatively nothing, were pushed into prom- 
inent positions, Thomas was kept in such subordinate ones that 
nothing but his individual force of character could have brought 
him into proper notice. It was not circumstances, but the man himself 
which made the whole "Western army come to look upon him as a 
sort of palladium, whose very presence was an <x:gis or safeguard at 
the last against disaster. So it was, as either a general of division 
or in command of the right wing of the " Arm}' of the Tennessee," he 
passed through the resultless forward movements which eventuated in 
the ideal siege of Corinth, a parallel to McClellan's imaginary siege of 
Yorktown, and those which brought the national forces back in Sep- 
tember, 1862, to Louis\dlle, after Buell had permitted Bragg, to all 
appearance, to work his will in Tennessee and in Kentucky. When, 
at Louisville, Buell worked out in his own mind a new plan of op- 
erations, and, to use the stereotyped phrase, "reorganized"' the "Army 
of the Ohio," orders came from Washington, removing Buell and ap- 
pointing Thomas in his stead. Thomas, with that patriotic self 

55S 



/ 



^ 




GEORGE H. THOMAS. 

neo-ation wticli was the prominent characteristic of the man, tele- 
graphed back to the administration that as the army was to move the 
next day, and that as he was not adequately acquainted with Buell's 
plan of operations, it would be better to make no change until the result 
of Buell's conceptions, good or bad, could be demonstrated. How 
briefly this is referred to in the report of Thomas to the Hon. Com- 
mittee on the Conduct of the War, the following paragraphs will 

show : — 

"September 29^/i. — Eeceived orders at the hands of Colonel McKibben, aide-de- 
camp staff of Major-General Halleck, commanding United States Army, assigning 
me to the command of the Army of the Ohio; but declining, the order was counter- 
manded. 

'^ September ^(ith. — Was announced as second in command of the Army of the 
Ohio per Special Order No. 159, headquarters Army of the Ohio. Continued in this 
position throughout the campaign in Kentucky." — " Conduct of the War." Supplement, 
Part I., page 23. 

The result of this remonstrance was the retention of Buell in 
his command. To Thomas was assigned the supervision of the 
right wing of the army, General Gilbert having succeeded him in 
the command of his own corps. Mark the result. After the next 
failure at Perryville Buell was removed, but Thomas, instead of being 
rewarded for his fidelity and disinterestedness, was punished for Bu- 
ell's shortcomings, and Eosecrans, a new man, — a new man, however, 
worthy, and none worthier, — was appointed in Buell's place, and 
Thomas left, still, in a secondary position. Just the same thing oc- 
curred after Chickamauga. When Thomas had saved everything, he 
was allowed to keep the bed warm for Grant ; and, when Grant was 
transferred to the East, again for Sherman. Again, under Sherman, the 
plan seems to have been to exalt McPherson at the expense of Thomas. 
Finally, after Thomas had won the battle that settled the matter every- 
where, Sheridan was promoted over his head. This was the last 
straw which broke the camel's back of his silent forbearance, and the 
writer fully believes but for this promotion Thomas would now be 
alive. One remark of Thomas will serve to elucidate what the 
writer desires to express. He once remarked, that he felt annoyed 
that it was necessary to insist upon attention being paid to his 
wishes. Now, in the case of a man who entertained such a modest 
estimate of his enormous services, it seems about equivalent to say- 
ing he did not obtain justice at all. As to the importance of the tri- 
umph achieved by Thomas at Nashville, one fact will have to suffice 

iu the restricted space accorded : Colonel , Brev. Brig. -Gen. U. 

557 



GEORGE H. THOMAS, 

S. A., who was in command of a district at the far South at the time, 
stated that there were sixty thousand Southern soldiers who were 
waiting the result of Hood's operations in Tennessee, to determine 
their future action. They had their muskets and equipments ready 
to take the field again, if Hood was victorious. "When the news 
of his annihilation reached them, they put away their arms and 
equipments, and recognized the situation, for they felt the game 
was up. 

Finally, contrast the independent course pursued by Thomas. 
When others were accepting houses and donations and benefactions, 
Thomas refused every proffered gift ; and would not even allow the 
members of his staff to present him a tea service, or offer it to his 
wife. And when the reborn Rebel sentiment in the Tennessee Legis- 
lature led that body to disgrace themselve-s in regard to his portrait, 
which their loyal predecessors had procured and placed in a position 
of honor in the capitol, he wrote to them to send him the picture, 
which was now out of place in the chamber of such a body, and 
that he, out of his limited means, would restore to a disloyal territory 
what a loyal administration had expended for the likeness of the 
man who had presented Tennessee to the Union, and the natioa 
itself under the walls of Nashville. Immortal powers ! what self 
negation and manly independence characterized his career through- 
out. The mythical patriotism of a Cato, of a Cincinnatus, or a Regu- 
lus, sinks into insignificance before such real, consistent conduct as 
that of Thomas. Like a sun in the heavens he moved on in the 
majesty of his glorious oneness, while the moons were revolving in 
their borrowed or contributed light. 

Not a dollar that he drew or received had any odor but that of 
honest guerdon for sei-vices rendered ; and, obedient to the precept 
of the inspired prophet, precursor of the Great Exemplar, he did 
" violence to no man, and was content with his wages." Like St 
Paul, he was beholden to no man, laboring for his subsistence, while 
the salvation of many people was due to his integrity. 

Again : the writer had a letter from him when his nomination for 
the Presidency was suggested to the noble citizen and soldier. In 
this the manly dignity of the hero shines forth in its accustomed 
lustre ; and, denied the position in his peculiar line — the generalship 
or the lieutenant-generalship, which was only due to his great ser- 
"vices — he refused to become the mere instrument of party, for the 
inanip.ulation of politicians, doubtless to experience the fate of the 

558 



GEOEGE H. THOMAS. 

honest hero of Buena Vista. If it be true that " consistency is a 
jewel," then the life example of George H. Thomas is a Koh-i-noor 
of patriotic and dignified light. 

The writer enjoyed a very peculiar connection with Thomas, 
carried on through, a desultory correspondence of years before they 
met. It was through common friends that the intense admiration, 
appreciation, and respect, which had evoked this sketch, was developed 
into something akin to Celtic hero-worship by personal intercourse. 
Something gikin to this, indeed, was felt by every individual capable of 
appreciating true manhood, who came in contact in any way with 
Thomas. One day the writer said to a common friend (Rosecrans), 
" Rosy, Thomas was an angel, was he not? " " Well," replied the mat- 
ter-of-fact victor of Stone River, " is not that going almost too far? 
I cannot exactly say that" "Oh, but I mean as near to an angel as a 
mortal man can be." " Yes, I agree to that." 

On another occasion, conversing with one of our most brilliant 
corps-commanders — one who held a position next to command in 
chief at a great crisis — the crisis according to general opinion — and 
speaking of Thomas and Humphreys, this " superb " soldier re- 
marked : " When you have said all you can in praise of Thomas and 
of Humphreys, you have told all that is to be said ; there is nothing 
to be said on the other side — no dispraise." " The ablest soldier this 
country ever produced " are the words of a letter fi'om " the hero of 
the battle above the clouds," and victor of Lookout Mountain. 

As these remarks grew out of a reference to a correspondence, 
the following letter in reply to mine, asking Thomas if he would ac- 
cept a nomination for the Presidency, would seem to come in appro- 
priately here. It explains itself, and is so characteristic that it is 
extremely interesting fi-om its demonstration of the unselfish patriot- 
ism of the great soldier at a time when almost all our successful 
commanders were hoping that their military services were about to 
prove stepping-stones to political promotion or the jDrofuser emolu- 
ments of political office. 

Headquaetebs, Depaetment of the Cumberland, 
Louisville, (Ky.), Apbil 20, 1867. 
Geneeal 3. Watts de Peystee, 

59 East Twenty-First Street, Keio York City. 

Deae Sir: I received your favor of the Qtli inst. some days ago, but have not 
had time to reply until to-day. 

First, you must permit me to acknowledge my grateful sense of your kind appre- 
ciation of my services; and 

Second, I wiU here state, and hope you will report for me whenever you hear 

559 



GEORGE H. THOMAS. 

my name mentioned in connection with the Presidency of the United States, that 
I never will consent to being brought before the people as a candidate for any office. 
I have too much regard for my own self-respect to voluntarily place myself in a 
position where my personal and private character can be assailed with impunity 
by newspaper men and scurrilous political pettifoggers and demagogues. 
Very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

Geoege H, Thomab. 

Of all tte battles of the Great American Conflict, the finest as 
to resiiltiveness, the finest as to execution, the finest strategically and 
tactically, the finest as a study and as an example to be referred to 
and cited hereafter, was Nashville. It was indeed a decisive battle. 
It was the "Waterloo of the four years' struggle. Some of Sheridan's 
fights approach it in resultiveness, but cannot compare when the 
forces respectively engaged are taken into consideration. Nashville 
was a first-class battle in every sense of the word. A soldier's in- 
terest does not begin with the fighting. It begins far back with the 
assembling of the troops in methodical, steady, progressive prepara- 
tions for something which should be satisfactory when it came off; 
nor does it end with the fighting. There was a crash and a dissolu- 
tion on the one side, and an instant following up and pureuit on the 
other, of which there are but few instances in the military history of 
the Old "World. According to a friend learned in military lore, the 
antecedents to the battle were worthy of Napoleon, supreme in strat- 
egy; to which opinion, however, the writer takes this exceptioru 
The action of the battle was rather worthy of Frederic, incompara- 
ble in tactics, to which our learned fi-iend accedes, and the profiting 
by what had been fought out was worthy of that Blucher who mul- 
tiplied energy, unsurpassed by a patriotic hatred to his opponent, 
which seemed to make him and his soldiers in a great measure in- 
sensible to fatigue, want of food, and deprivation of sleep — hardest to 
be borne. So much so, that, either through his influence or the 
proverbial " Prussian spur," the very horses seem to become patriotic. 
This last remark refers to the excuse of the French General Nansouti in 
Eussia, " that he could appeal to the patriotism of his men for extra 
exertion, but that their horses had no patriotism — the only appeal in 
sucb cases to them was corn,'' or their feed in general. 

It has alwaj^s been considered that the campaign of Nashville 
was a part and parcel of Sherman's grand operation of 1864 A 
critical examination of the facts, since all the facts have become 
known, will hardly bear out this view of the case. "When Sherman 

560 



GEORGE H. THOMAS. 

wlieeled to the left for his marcli to the sea, he left Thomas as inde- 
pendent a part to play as that which he reserved for himself, and a 
much more important part, since all that he had to do was to march 
a sufl6.cient and well-adjusted army through a country denuded of 
military defence ; whereas Thomas had to create and organize an 
army, and then fight a desperate antagonist. While collecting his 
forces for this battle, Thomas fell under the disapprobation of those 
who never pardoned any shortcomings except their own. The great 
loyal Yirginian bore the impatience which growled in his rear with 
the same equanimity with which he watched the fury chafing in his 
front. He was content to appear to be besieged, because he was re- 
solved to wait until he got a " good ready," as Eosecrans expressed 
it, and because he knew that the duration of the siege depended 
solely upon his own good-will and pleasure. The accumulation of 
his forces very much resembled the gathering of a thunderstorm 
around the peak of a mountain — growing darker and denser, fear- 
ful to coiitemplate, while the sui-rounding sky is still serene, and 
only a few murky clouds, floating here and there, disturb the smil- 
ing azure. Then comes a sheet of flame which blinds the eye, quickly 
succeeded by a crash as if numerous batteries answered batteries 
along a leng-thened line of battle. The eye is dazzled with the ra- 
pidly succeeding flashes, the earth quakes as the storm-cloud de- 
scends amid torrents of rain ; and, in a few minutes, day has almost be- 
come night, amid the roaring of the waters, the howling of the wind, 
and the groaning of the smitten forests. So it was with Nashville. 
The country stood expectant until the suspense was ominously bur- 
densome. Then, almost simultaneously with the rousing up of the 
lion from his cover, the country recognized what awful wrong it had 
done to Thomas in doubting for one moment his capacity to grap- 
ple with the occasion, and convert the unavoidable delay into such a tri- 
umphant issue as more than shamed the general injustice which had 
dared to underestimate that glorious man who could bear the mis- 
calculation of his powers in silence; and then, in the fulness of time, 
strike as no one before had ever struck on any battle-field during the 
War for the Union. Another circumstance must be taken into con- 
sideration. This battle was fought in the depth of winter, or rather 
at the worst period of the year, when it is impossible to calculate 
what the ensuing day will bring forth, while yet the rigorof the season 
is certain to manifest itself in phases the most difficult for an army 
to overcome, or for the soldiery and their animals to support 

561 



GEORGE H. THOMAS. 

Perhaps the chief cause which delayed the aggressive of Thomas 
was the difficulty experienced in remounting his cavalry, — that ca- 
valry which he was determined, so far as he was concerned, should 
play their appropriate part in disposing of the enemy after they had 
been broken up by the infantry. Even as it turned out, he was not 
enabled to obtain horses for more than 3,000 to 4,000. These per- 
formed most efi^ective service, and the residue rendered very efficient 
service in another way, acting as a sort of light infantry. 

Hood having escaped from Sherman at Atlanta, after menacing 
the long line of communication of tlie army which had so signally 
defeated him under the defences of that place, struck off on a tan- 
gent, that, had there been no Thomas in its way, might have com- 
pletel}' stultified the saying attributed to Sherman, that if Hood 
would only pursue the course which he had evidently marked out 
for himself, he (Sherman) would willingly furnish him with rations 
to enable him to run his race of recklessness. 

If any evidence was needed to prove the incapacity of Davis to 
arrive at a correct judgment of men and estimate them at their pro- 
per value, it was in his substitution of Hood for Joseph E. Johnston, 
the greatest general of the Confederacy, a head and shoulders taller 
in regard to ability than any other commander which the Confeder- 
acy possessed. Davds, in the exhibition of his favoritism, had com- 
mitted fatal errors, — fatal as respected the immediate events which 
depended on his appointments. Pendleton had cost him Vicksburg 
and the valley proper of the Mississippi ; Bragg had lost him East- 
ern Tennessee, of a value almost incalculable to the Confederacy, as 
a loss irreparable, and Chattanooga, the key to that middle zone, 
whose possession threw open the door to the armed flood which 
burst the rebel States asunder. 

On December 2d, 1864, Hood sat down before Nashvilje, him- 
self deluded with the idea that he was investing Thomas, while that 
sturdy old warrior was quietly getting ready to give him his quietus. 
This, when he had his forces in hand, he did indeed give, and dis- 
posed of the Confederacy as an armed power west of the Alleghanies. 
The contrast of the rash presumption of Hood and the thoughtful 
calmness of Thomas would almost justify a smile had it not involved 
the death and mutilation of so many brave men. 

Hood's line constituted an obtuse angle along the crest of a curve 
of hills, with its right resting on the Nolensville Pike, its left on the 
Hillsborough Pike, at Brentford Hills, — both wings separated by quite 

562 



GEOEGE H. THOMAS. 

a long interval from the river. The whole line presented a front of 
six to seven miles, whose apex was on Montgomeiy Hill, not over 
two hundred yards from that of Thomas's, and consequently in the 
immediate presence of our troops, with both wings refused. Hood's 
force was at least 40,000 old troops, veterans in the real sense of the 
word, aggregated from different corps, besides good cavalry. Accurate 
judges increase this to 42,000 in hne. Strong, however, as Hood 
was in the number and excellence of his troops, these did not pre- 
sent, by any means, all the startling diflQ.culties that Thomas had to 
overcome. Captain Lippett, in his " Treatise on Intrench m en ts," fur- 
nishes a good idea of Hood's preparations. To avoid the charge of 
exaggerating the dangers vanquished by the Union troops, let him 
tell the story : — 

"At the battle of Nashville, the Confederate General Hood had carefully chosen 
two positions, one in rear of the other, in which to receive our attack ; and Hood 
employed much time and labor in intrenching them. Hii3 first line was six mUes in 
length, stretching over the wooded sides and crests of a series of high hills, which 
were covered with breastworks, rifle-pits, and abattis, with guns sweeping all the 
approaches. But on the first day of the battle, this formidable line was made un- 
tenable by his left being smashed in and turned, — compellin,^ him to faU back to hia 
second line, which was only three miles in length, but stronger, because more con- 
centrated; nevertheless, on the second day, by the turning of his flank and rear by 
Wilson's Cavalry, combined with Smith's and Schofield's attack on his left, he was 
forced to abandon his defences, and his retreat soon became a "Waterloo rout. " 

The Union line had a less flattened formation, much nearer to a 
right angle, with the angle rounded off. This line was very strong, 
since every commanding position was occupied by a fort or a re- 
doubt. At iirst Steedman's provisional (so to speak) corps held the ex- 
treme left, and Schofield's Twenty-third corps the Uniou left centre ; 
"Wood's Fourth corps was in the centre ; A. J. Smith on the right ; 
"Wilson, with his cavalry, on the extreme right of the line.* Thomas, 
with his staff, occupied a prominent position on a hill about the cen- 
tre-front, overlooking the whole field of battle, and thence he dispatcbed 
his aids and orderlies with orders for the movements in accordance 

* It has always been a vexed question as to how many available troops Thomas 
had in this "big fight." Col. Stone, formerly Asst.-Adjt. -Gen. to Thomas, calculates 
the actual strength of the Union army on this field at 35,000, although nominally 
there were 43,000. It was thus composed: 1, Steedman's provi.sioual (so to speak) 
corps, middling troops, colored, convalescents 8,000— really 6,000; 2, Schofield's 
23d corps, or "Army of the Ohio," good, 10,000— really 8,000: 3, Wood's Ith corps, 
good, 10,000— reaUy 8,000; 4, A.J. Smith's 13th corps, A. No. 1, 8,000-8,000; 5, 
Wilson's Cavalry, used as a rule here as lufantrj', 7,000 - really 5,000. An average ol 
the estimate on paper, 43,000, and under arms 35,000, would give, according to Stone's 

563 



yj 



GEORGE H. THOMAS. 

with tte plan discussed and resolved upon the previous evening, 
which acted like clock-work and as effectually as a series of Krupp's 
twenty, thirty, and fifty-ton trip-hammers striking in as predeter- 
mined. 

Hood's attention was invited to our left and riveted upon our 
centre where the antagonistic lines drew nearest together. Then the 
Union right swung forward, A. J. Smith attacking ; Wilson's Cav- 
alry likewise attacking, and, at the same time, turning ; while a 
smaller independent force of cavalry were holding a body of Confed- 
erate horse in check which menaced our right outermost lines, ungar- 
nished by the forward sweep of that wing. 

As soon as Ilood began to perceive what was going on on his 
left, he withdrew troops fi'om that portion of his line to reinforce 
the menaced wing. Thomas, foreseeing that this would occur, slipped 
Schofield over to the right of Wood, and massed his corps under 
cover ; and his place on the left of our line was filled with quarter- 
master's troops — good men enough, but unacclimated to the bitter 
heat of battle, — troops which had hitherto constituted the garrison of 
the city. As soon as the Confederate left began to roll up under Wil- 
son's attack and crack under the pressure of A. J. Smith, Wood went 
in upon the centre, which crumbled under his blows and those of Scho- 
field. Thus Steedman's aggregated command had done good work. 
Their initiative operations against the Confederate right, although that 
right was able to oppose a strenuous resistance, had a decisive effect on 
the result, since it attracted Hood's attention. Finding his left so 

calculation, 38,000. Some of the Cavalry (Hammond's division) did not cross the 
river, but remained at Edgefield. Wilson had the divisions of Johnson, Knipe, and 
Hatch. McCook's division had gone up into Kentucky after the rebel general 
Lyon. 

The officer who prepared the statement of Thomas' operations for the Congres- 
sional "Eeport of the Conduct of the War, Supplement, Parti." says: ''Thomas' 
effective force in front of NashviUe numbered 42,000; that of the enemy being about 
the same — if any thing, a little greater than our own. " 

"Commencing on the right, the Cavalry (mounted and dismounted) under J. H. 
Wilson, about 8,000; A. J. Smith's corps (the 17th) about 12,000; T. J. Wood's 
corps (the l4th, and formerly StanLy's) about 11,000; and on the left of Wood was 
a provisional division of about 5,000 men, under J. B. Steedman, comprising col- 
ored troops, convalescents from hospitals, stragglers from Sherman's columu, hundred 
day troops", and odds and ends generally. Our losses during the two days of battle 
were less than 3,000; that of the enemy was 84 guns, taken by assault, many battle- 
flags, and about 6,000 prisoners. From the opening of the fight by Steedman on our 
left, to its close by breaking the enemy's centre, General Thomas' written order-of- 
battle was adhered to, and the battle itself went off like a written play at a theatre." 

564 



GEOKGE H. THOMAS. 

roughly handled and his right holding firni, he weakened his right 
in a great degree to strengthen the opposite wing, subjected to the 
first shock heavy enough to stagger him. With the smashing in of 
Hood's centre, the keystone of the Confederate arch was knocked out, 
and the curve, already shaky with the pressui-e at other points, crum- 
bled at once. With the setting sun and rapidly succeeding darkness, 
the day's work was complete and well ended. 

The gain in prisoners and trophies was sufficient to attest that 
Thomas had won what the Generals at the East, and, in fact, almost 
every General, except one of the first two classes — which embrace 
only such very few captains — would have claimed as a decided vic- 
tory, for the world esteems the occupancy of the battle-field a victory. 
Add to this the capture of numerous prisoners, guns, and some 
colors, and the unreflecting masses toss up their hats and shout a 
most glorious triumph. Thomas, like all great generals, did not con- 
sider that he had done sufficient to cry, " Hold, enough !" while any- 
thing remained to be done, and Hood was too resolute a man, and 
his troops were too good soldiers to yield the palm while there was 
still enough cohesion among them to hold them up, and enough 
discipline to enable Hood to di-aw up the Confederate Army of the 
Tennessee for another trial. 

Hood gathered up his ai'my as well as he was able, and disposed 
them along the crest of a second curve of elevations, the Harpeth 
Hills, several miles further to the rear, and about five miles south of 
Nashville, presenting very much the same general formation as that 
which his army had assumed on the loth. This new line was about 
three miles in extent, from wing to wing. Thomas now again re- 
peated the same series of manoeuvres, which, admirably executed, 
had been so eminently successful on the 15th. The struggle on the 
16th was more bloody than that of the preceding day, but the result 
■was the same. Pressed on the left by Smith, turned and rolled up 
on the extreme left by Wilson, ft)rced in on the right by Smith and 
Schofield, and tapped in the centre again by Post, AVood, and Steed- 
man's colored troops, each efibrt being made coherently and in 
accordance with plan and orders, — this time the Confederate line not 
only crumbled, but went to wreck. 

Pollard, Confederate historian, says: " A stampede suddenly took 
place in one of his (Hood's) divisions, and the day was lost in a mo- 
ment." (" The Last Year," ;KX., 423.) The Confederate army went 
streaming off toward Duck Kiver, jostling, jarring, dashing itself to 

565 



GEOKGE H. THOMAS. 

pieces like old ice, cake against cake, field against field, all broken 
up, driven and jumbled, by a sudden and tremendous spring-fresbeL 
" Tbe break in Bates's division," again observes Pollard, " was the sig- 
nal for a general panic in Hood's army. The moment a small break 
was made in his lines, the whol.e of two corps unaccountably and in- 
stantly fled fi'om their ditches, most of them without firing a gun. It 
was a disgraceful retreat. Fifty pieces of artillery and nearly all of 
Hood's ordnance-wagons were left to the enemy. Our loss in killed 
and wounded was disgracefully small ; and it was only through want 
of vigor in Thomas's pursuit that Hood's shattered and demoralized 
army effected its retreat. He finally made his escape across the 
Tennessee River, with the' remnant of his army, having lost, from va- 
rious causes, more than ten thousand men, half of his generals, and 
nearly all of his artillery. Such was the disastrous issue of the 
Tennessee campaign, which put out of existence, as it were, the 
splendid army that Johnson had giA'cn up at Atlanta, and terminated 
forever the whole scheme of Confederate defence west of the Alle- 
ghanies." 

And thus ISTashville was made by Thomas one of those victories 
which can hold up its head, and claim as to consequences there, 
elsewhere, and everywhere, to take rank with Rocroy, Leipsic, Witt- 
stock, Janikau, Rosbach, Lissa, Jena, Torgau, Fleurus, Laon, and 
Waterloo. Thomas had shown so much ability, and had taken 
such prompt advantage of every mistake on the part of his adver- 
sary, that Hood's rout had no pai-allel in the history of the war. 
Had Hood held his cavalry in hand, the result might have been 
modified in a small degree, but not sufficiently modified to change 
the grand result. He committed the same error of which Lee had 
been guilty at Gettysburg, when the latter allowed J. E. B. Stuart 
and his cavalry to get altogether out of his reach, so that they ef- 
fected nothing, and could not work in together, at the appropriate 
place, in time. Even so Hood had previously blundered before At- 
lanta, in detaching Wheeler with his cavalry — a most important 
element of success — and had suffered accordingly. And even as in the 
presence of Sherman, Hood had let go his hold upon Wheeler, even 
so, again, before Thomas, the Confederate commander sent off Forrest 
on a " bootless errand," and allowed him to get beyond his controL 
Doubtless it had a very serious and disastrous effect upon the for- 
tunes of the rebel "Army of the Tennessee." For this Hood could 
blame no one but himself Thomas also experienced a drawback La 

566 



GEORGE H. THOMAS. 

the absence of a sufficient bridge-train. This lack, however, was in 
no wise chargeable to him. In the same way that Burnside was 
crippled in December, 1862, through the absence of pontoons, a lack 
chargeable at Washington^ the pursuit by Thomas was seriously im- 
peded, at first, especially, at Kutherford's Creek, and then at Duck 
Eiver. Thus a loss of three days was occasioned by a deficiency in 
transportable bridge material, in which branch Thomas had not been 
able to complete his preparations. The engineers' train of Thomas 
had been rendered (perhaps necessarily) imperfect, to perfect Sher- 
man's aiTangements for the march to the sea. All historians are 
aware that the possession of an ample bridge-train enabled Rudolph, 
of Hapsburg, to cross, promptly, the Danube in 1276, and settle the 
fate of his rival, Ottocar, of Bohemia. Thus, a few pontoons may be 
said to have secured the imperial crown of Gei-many for nearly six 
centuries to the House of Hapsburg. 

The absence of a sufficient train with the Union army alone 
enabled Hood's crumbled wrecks to escape utter annihilation. As 
an organized force, the rebel Army of the Tennessee had made its 
last campaign, and fought its last battle. " When the year 1864 
went out, (this) the Confederate army of the West may be said to 
have expired with it," and one army, or grand military quantity, 
was blotted out from the war equation. The Count of Paris, in his 
history of our Civil War, applies identically the same language to 
the result of Mill Spring — the first triumph achieved by Thomas — as 
that which almost universal consent considers as due to his last. 
The Count sa^'s : " the Confederate army was annihilated " (page 
294, Vol. II. '' Histoire de la Guerre Civile en Amerique," par M. le 
Comte de Paris, 1874). 

The great generalship of Thomas had ended the business west 
of the Alleghanies, and the battle of Nashville had amputated the 
left leg at the hip and the left arm at the shoulder of this stu- 
pendous Rebellion. Indeed, it is not claiming too much to say that 
Virginia's great loyal son decided the rebellion itself in the two daj-s' 
battle he planned and fought on the 15th and 16th of December, 
1864, on the banks of the Cumberland. 

It is said that in the majority of cases, it is almost sufficient to 
narrate the prominent incidents of the careers of great men and the 
results thereof, to furnish their best biographies. 

The rule referred to is eminently true, where men have filled such 
peculiar positions that their individuality was not obscured by facti- 

567 



GEORGE H. THOMAS. 

•tious surroundings. Yery often the greatest of men, of whom " the 
world knows nothing," are the imperceptible souls which animate 
huge masses of clay, thus realizing the idea of St. Paul, that the things 
which are not seen far transcend in glory those that are visible. 
The reason is, that which, is seen is merely earthy, while that which 
is invisible (except through its effects), like the injSuence of Thomas, 
is, to use the words of the great historian Arrian in regard to Alex- 
ander, "an evidence of the direct interposition of God through man." 

How little, for instance, does the world know of Marshal Traun, 
to whom Frederic the Great acknowledged that he "went to school " 
in the art of war. Traun was an " Adlatus," or an " Alter-Ego," or di- 
recting chief of staff, a " military dry-nurse," as Carlyle styles him, to 
whom Austria owed all her triumphs about a century and a quarter 
since — triumphs attributed in history to members of the imperial 
house. Traun was to his arch-ducal superiors exactly what Von 
Blumenthal has been In Prussia's later wars to the Crown Prince 
of Prussia. About such was Thomas for the long period of bis 
career to more than one superior, — acting in one campaign, as he 
smilingly observed to tte writer, "as a balance-wheel." Fortunate 
for the country that our western armies had such "a balance wheel" 

This egotism — if su.c.h a defect as egotism could find sufficient 
nutriment to continue to exist in a nature so simple, modest, and 
truthful as that of Thomas — expresses little more than what Sherman 
is said to have remarked in an exigency or a tight place, after he 
had sent Thomas back to Nashville. " I wish old Thom was here. 
He's my off-wheel horse, and knows how to pull with me, though he 
don't pull in the same wa}-," 

Always necessarily restricted as to space in the present work, it 
is impossible to enter into a consideration of the continual influence 
exercised by Thomas in all the battles in which he held a subor- 
dinate position. Whatever may have been the effect of his presence 
and co-operation in all, no one can diminish his glory in the first and 
last fields on which he appeared — Mill Spiing and Nashville. 
There Providence allowed him to act alone, and entirely for himseli 

It is in such a case as either of these, as Schiller indicated in his 
famous " Troopers Song " in " Wallenstein's Camp," that a soldier 
and a general is tried. 

" For there a man feels the pride of his force, 
And there is the heart of him tried ; 
J^o help to him there by another is shown, 
He stands for himself and himself alone." 
568 



GEOKGE H. THOMAS. 

Eosecrans summed Thomas up nobly in his report of the battle 
of Stone River, or Murfreesborough, " as true and prudent, distin- 
guished in counsel, and on many battle-fields for his courage." 
Again, in his report of Chickamauga : " To Major-General Thomas, 
the true soldier and incorruptible patriot, the thanks and gratitude 
of the country are due for his conduct at the battle of Chickamauga." 
But what needed Thomas the praise of any man ? His best praise 
is his consistent life. That there is "no dispraise " to be spoken of 
him, such is his greatest eulogy. 

In regard to the account herein following, of Kashville, two cu- 
rious facts are notable connected with it The position of the troops 
and their movements were indicated by a few pencil-dashes on a 
scrap of paper by Major-General Zealous (significant and appropriate), 
B. Tower (equally expressive), Chief Engineer to Thomas. Notwith- 
standing these rapid indications were so clear, that from them, as 
from stenographic symbols, the writer was subsequently enabled to 
complete his naiTative as fast as the pen could run. The proofs were 
then submitted to Thomas, and handed back by him without cor- 
rection as to fact, and with only a few verbal alterations. A portion 
of these proofs were rescued from the ruthless hand of the printer, 
and have been preserved as precious mementoes of " our gi-eatest, 
with the least pretence." Eosecrans, who was deeply interested in 
the preservation of the opinions of Thomas, declared with gTcat feel- 
ing, that it was positively wicked not to have written down the 
words of Thomas, during an evening expressly devoted to a critical 
examination of the campaigns in which he participated. His words 
were veritable strictures upon several deemed above criticism by 
their countrymen. Unfortunately, a sudden and severe attack pre- 
vented the writer from keeping the next appointment when notes 
were to be taken of the conversation, and sickness compelled a pre- 
cipitate return home for medical treatment Before convalescent, 
Thomas had left Washington ; and, to the writer's lasting sorrow, 
they never met again. 

In reviewing the Atlanta Campaign, Thomas certainly expressed 
opinions which justified the conclusion, to use the words of Ten- 
nyson, that 

" Some one had blundered." 

Thomas said that when Sherman lay looking Joseph E. Johnston 
in the eye at Dalton, he went to his superior, and said : " Sherman, 
let me take the ' Army of the Cumberland,' move through Snake 

569 



GEORGE H. THOMAS. 

Creek Gap, and get in the rear of Johnston. He must come out and 
fight me, and I can whip him with the 'Axmy of the Cumberland,' 
alone. But, worst for worst, if he should get the better of me, you 
can come upon him with the Armies of the Tennessee and the Ohio, 
and, between us, we can rub him out. His men will take to the 
mountains, but he must abandon his artillery and trains, and there 
will be an end of the matter." "No," replied Sherman ; the ' Army 
of the Tennessee ' are better marchers than tbe ' Army of the Cum- 
berland,' and I am going to send McPherson." On learning this, I 
put on my hat and returned to my quarters, for I saw tbe game was 
up. You know the result ; McPherson was stopped by a brigade, 
went to digging, and Johnston slipped by, and so it was down to 
Atlanta.* 

" As for the ' March to the Sea,' there was nothing to stop 
Sherman from going where he chose. I said to him, 'Let me 
take tbe ' Army of the Cumberland,' and I will go wherever you in- 
dicate — to Mobile, to Savannah.' Nothing could have prevented me ; 
but he chose to send me back to Nashville, and I obeyed, as I 
always did. 

" While I was getting a ' good ready ' at Nashville, Grant's com- 
munications and telegrams used sometimes to nettle me. At times 
I thought I would telegrapli back, ' If you want me to go out at 

* "Shortly after his (Sherman's) assignment to the command ol themilitary divis- 
ion of the Mississippi, General Sherman came to see me at Chattanooga, to consult 
as to the position of affairs, and adopt a plan for a spring campaign. At that inter- 
view I proposed to General Sherman that if he would use McPherson's and Scho- 
field's armies to demonstrate on the enemy's position at Dalton by the direct roads 
through Buzzard Eoost Gap and from the direction of Cleveland, I would throw 
my whole force through Snake Creek Gap, which I knew to be unguarded, fall upon 
the enemy's communications between Dalton and Eesaca, thereby turning his posi- 
tion completely, and force him either to retreat to-nard the east, through a difficult 
country, poorly supplied with provisions and forage, with a strong probability of 
total disorganization of his force, or attack me, in which latter event I felt confident 
that my army was sufficiently strong to beat him, especially as I hoped to gain a 
position on his communications before he could be made aware of my movement. 
General Sherman objected to this plan for the reason that he desired my army to 
form the reserve of the united armies, and to serve as a rallying point for the two 
wings, the ' Army of the Ohio ' and that ' of the Tennessee ' to operate from. 

" (Later, when the campaign in Georgia was commenced, the 'Army of the Ten- 
nessee ' was sent through Snake Creek Gap to accomplish wl at I had proposed doing 
with my army, but not reaching Snake Creek Gap before the enemy had informed 
himself of the movement, McPherson was unable to get upon his communications 
before Johnston had withdrawn part of his forces from Dalton, and had made dis- 
positions to defend Resaca.") — " Conduct of the War." Supplement, Part 1. Report of 
Major- Gene7-al Thomas, page 201-2. 

570 




GEORGE H. THOMAS. 

Hood with inferior forces, why don't you go in at Lee with such 
snj^erior forces ? ' But I am not given to writing or telegi-aphing, and 
so I kept quiet ; and when I thought I was ready I attacked Hood, 
and I think the result justified me." 

" General Thomas, if you had been superseded what would have 
been the result ? " 

As the answer to this in the words of Thomas (his modest 
manner gave a significance and meaning to his words which 
cannot be expressed on paper), if given verbatim might appear 
egotistical to those who did not know him, sufficient to say he 
intimated that his army would not have fought as it did under any 
one but him. 

In the Tribune of the 19th March, 1870, an ailicle appeared 
signed " Another Man," answering a previous publication appa- 
rentl}'^ reflecting upon Thomas. It was so pertinent that it is impos- 
sible to forbear partial quotation. It concludes as follows : " And 
however great the merits of Schofield or Logan or General Grant him- 
self, nobody who knows what that army was, and what its failings were, 
will dare dispute the fact that his (Thomas') removal would have 
pi'oved a great if not a fatal error, and that a very large part of the 
enthusiasm, vim, and heartiness with which the battle of Nashville 
was fought was due to the fact that in the current words of the men 
in the ranks, ' This is old Pop's fight, and we are going to win it for 
him,' " 

As a friend of Rosecrans, the writer asked Thomas if he blamed 
Eosecrans for what occurred at Chickamauga. " No farther than 
this," was the reply ; " Rosecrans, after getting Chattanooga, should 
have acted as I did — he should have paid no attention to Halleck or 
Stanton, or the pressure from "Washington. The ' Army of the Cum- 
berland ' had done a good nine months' work in driving the Rebels out 
of Tennessee, and getting a foot-hold south of the river. Rosecrans 
should have waited to get another 'good ready' before he pushed 
foi-ward again. I would have asked to be relieved sooner than act on 
compulsion contrary to my judgment. When a general command- 
ing an army is ordered to do what he feels that he ought not to do, 
he should act upon his own opinions, and let things take their course, 
Rosecrans was only blameable for his blind obedience to orders 
which I knew to be wrong." Thus Thomas, it seemed", held to 
Bayard's doctrine : "Do what you yourself think right, let happen 
what may." 

571 



GEORGE H. THOMAS. 

This led to the observation, " General Thomas, it is said that you 
disobeyed at Chattanooga (like Soult in regard to attacking the 
Heights of the Pratzen at Austerlitz, exactly a similar case to Chat- 
tanooga), because you knew the timie had not come. Did you say 
that the battle turned out about as well as if it had been fought as it 
was planned ? " 

Thomas smiled, then answered to the effect that the orders for 

'bis attack on the Confederate centre, in his opinion, were premature; 

and that he believed his delay was not only justifiable but altogether 

correct, and " that was the reason that I expressed myself as I did in 

my report." * 

The writer does not pretend to give the very words of Thomas 
during this conversation, but believes what is now presented is the 
exact force and purport of them. 

Thomas was almost without an imitator, if not absolutely alone 
in his mode of living in the army. Elegance, simplicity, and solid 
comfort, characterized everything about him. His chief attendant 
— a respectable contraband — absolutely idolized his master, as he 
had good reason to do, for Thomas had ordered one of his officers in 
command of a cavalry raid, to rescue Phil's wife and family from 
worse than Egyptian bondage. This was successfully accomplished, 
and the faithful negro had the satisfaction of knowing, while he was 
repaying his benefactor with vigilant fidelity, those dear to him were 
in safety on the soil of freedom. His other servants, never changed, 
appeared to have become imbued with the undeviating deportment, 
decorum, and habits of the master. Naj'-, his very horses seemed to 
resenable each other, and were noble, powei-ful, and sedate animals, 
becoming their rider. Shanks, in his " Personal Eecollections," enters 
into quite a detailed description of the habits of Thomas. Speaking 
of breakfast, he says: " Daylight and breakfast were announced sim- 
ultaneously by an elderly, dignified, and cleanly attired colored ser- 
vant. * * * The breakfast- table was spread under the fly-leaf 
of the tent, which served as a kitchen, and on it smoked fresh beef, 
ham, and strong black coffee. At each silver plate was a napkin of 

* It will be perceived by the above report, that the original plan of operations 
•was somewhat modified, to meet and take the best advantage of emergencies, which 
necessitated material modifications of that jjlan. It is believed, however, that the 
original plan, had it been carried out, could not possibly have led to more success- 
ful results." — Conduct of the War. Supplement, Part I. Report of Majvr-General 

Thomas, page 137 

572 



GEORGE n. THOMAS. 

the purest wliite, artistically folded in the latest style of the first-class 
hotels, a silver water-goblet, a china cup, aod the usual knives and 
the silver forks. Better beef and better coffee could not have been 
found in the country in which the army was campaigning, while the 
hot rolls and potatoes, baked in the hot ashes of a neighboring fire, 
would have made many a French cook blush. 

"When beginning the campaign of Atlanta, Sherman endeavored 
to effect an important innovation in the habits of his army by carry- 
ing out to the very letter his instructions to ' move light,' i. e., without 
extra baggage. In order to impress upon his officers the necessity of 
setting a good example to the men, he published an order, in which 
he stated that the ' general commanding intended making the cam- 
paign without tent or baggage.' The hint was lost on most of the 
officers, and among others on Thomas, who moved in his usual heavy 
style, with a complete headquarter train and the usual number of 
tents, adding indeed to the usual allowance a large wagon arranged 
with desks, which, when covered by a hospital tent fly, made a very 
complete adjutant-general's office. 

" The campaign began, and Sherman made several days' march 
without his tent, sleeping anywhere that night overtook him ; but 
before reaching Resaca he was very glad to take up his abode near 
Thomas' headquarters, and make use of his tents and adjutant-general's 
office." 

The world, as a rule, judging great men through theii' little judg- 
ments, and almost invariably accepting gilding for gold, may con- 
found the honest convictions based on deep thought, long experience, 
actual supervision, and solid judgTuent, for the utterances of men in 
very high places, who, puffed up with their success, utter oracular 
opinions, which are often sheer talk without thought No one who 
knew Thomas will question his modesty; but, on the other hand, 
no one who knew Thomas could question that he had fixed opinions, 
and expressed them freely. His modesty consisted in his manner, 
his language, his under-cstimate of his own services and his over- 
estimate of the services of others, where the pretensions founded upon 
them were not run into the ground. 

" General Thomas is the purest man I (ShaJiks) met in the army. 
He was the Bayard of our army — sanspeur, san.s reproche — and I liave 
endeavored in vain to find a flaw in his character. His character is 
free from every stain, and he stands forth in the army as above sus- 
picion. He has gone through the war without apparently exciting 

573 



GEORGE H. THOMAS, 

the jealousy of a single officer. He has so regulated Ms advance- 
ment — so retarded, in fact, his promotion — that when, as the climax to 
two years' hard service, he fought a great battle and saved a great 
army, and was hailed and recognized by the whole country as a hero, 
not one jealous or defeated officer was found to utter dissent to this 
popular verdict." 

As the best exemplification of the idea which the writer is 
endeavoring to convey, the reader's attention is directed to the two 
following letters, from men as highly distinguished in their several 
ways as any in the country. As a scientific as well as a fighting 
soldier, no one stands higher, than " pure gold " Major-Greneral 
Humphreys, Chief of Engineers, U. S. A., nor is any one more highly 
esteemed, as a calm, judicious, dignified, and honest civil official, 
than L. F. S. Foster, Senator from Connecticut, and, for two years, 
acting Yice-President of the United States during the Presidency 
of Andrew Johnson. Tlie incident could be told in fewer words, 
but to the majority of minds the original language carries with it 
ten times greater force than a narrative which might appear to be 
too highly colored through partiality for the character or affection 
for the man. 

Washington, May 30, 1874. 
My dear General : 

I have not been able to write you until now, and threw aside even to-day matters 
pressing on me, to write you even briefly, for my mind is full of other subjects. It 
was I that mentioned to you Thomas' address, or account of his Nashville campaign. 
There was formerly a small club in Washington that met at each other's houses, 
taking them in succession, for conversation upon and discussion of scientific subjects. 
The evening was closed by an inexpensive supper. It was usual for a member to 
invite any stranger in Washington who might be sujiposed to take an interest in such 
matters. Finally, it became the custom for the member at whose house the meeting 
took place, to give an account of anything that he thought interesting, or have some 
friend do so. 

One evening when the club met at General Eaton's (Commissary-General of Sub- 
sistence), General Thomas was present, and gave us an account of his Nashville 
campaign, illustrated by maps. There were only about fifteen persons present. 
The exceeding modesty and diffidence of General Thomas in this narrative, made a 
very strong impression on me. He reminded me of a diffident youth at West Point 
undergoing the yearly examination, whose suffering on such occasions only those 
afficted with diffidence can comprehend and remember, which they do to the last 
days of their lives. The perspiration gathered profusely on his forehead. This 
painful diffidence in a man who had had such experiences greatly surprised me, and 
its simplicity almost amused me. Occupied as I had been all through the war with 
what was taking place with the Army of the Potomac, I knew but little of the manner 
in which the operations of other armies had taken place. General Thomas' account 

57i 



GEORGE H. THOMAS. 

gave me a different view of his operations and the battle of Nashville, from what I 
had previously had, and corrected some erroneous impressions. He seemed to me 
just as simple-hearted as when I had met him in Florida at the time he joined his 
regiment, coming fresh from the Military Academy. 

Sincerely yours, 

A. A. HUMPHEEYS. 
Major-Qeneral de Peysteb, N. T. 



NoEwicH, Conn., May 30th, 1874. 
My dear General de Petstbe : 

In answer to your favor of 23d, I would state that I recall very readily the account 
which Gen. Geo. H. Thomas gave one evening before a scientific club in Washington 
of the battle of NashviUe. He had drawn plans showing the position of the opposing 
forces, and he pointed out the order of attacks as made in the different points along 
the line, and stated the result of the several movements. Substantial success was 
attained by the Union forces at every point, the enemy was beaten back, and the 
close of the first day indicated strongly what became complete on the day foUowing 
— his thorough defeat. 

I scarcely need say that we all listened to General Thomas with rapt attention 
and with great gratification. His plans and statements were so clear and explicit 
that' I think every one present must have obtained a good idea of the plan of the 
battle and of the manner in which it was fought. What struck me very forcibly, 
and I presume others present were impressed in the same manner, was the appa- 
rent forgetfulness of himself in connection with the events he was describing. 
Had we not known that he was the commanding general, and that every move- 
ment was the result of the action of his mind and will, we should never have imagined 
it from any allusion he made to himself. But when he came to pronounce an opinion 
upon the whole subject, and to point out, as he did, what he called a grave error 
of judgment, he made himself prominent at once, and threw the blame entirely on 
himself. 

At the close of the first day, he says he ought to have detached a force and sent 
it round to the rear of the enemy, and cut off his retreat. Had he done so, he would 
have captured nearly or quite the whole of Hood's armj'. As it was. Hood was 
enabled to effect his retreat. I asked him if he was not pronouncing a rigorous and 
unjust judgment, and suggested that at the close of the first day it was impossible 
for him to decide whether Hood's forces were thoroughly demoralized and defeated 
or not. That if he had detached a force of sufiScient strength to the enemy's rear to 
cut off his retreat, whether it wovild not have so weakened his attacking columns the 
second day that they would have fought with less confidence of victory; and whether, 
if Hood's men had known that their retreat was cut ofi", it might not have given them 
the energy of despair, and impelled them to fight so as to turn back the tide of vic- 
tory. He did not yield at all to my suggestions : he said that a general must be pre- 
pared to take some risks, and that Hood's army ought all to have been captured. 
The entire absence of all self-assertion on the part of General Thomas— his unafi"ected 
modesty— were most conspicuous the whole evening. It seemed to me that had any 
other officer but himself been in command, he would never have indulged in so 
. severe a criticism of his conduct. 

Believe me, vei-y truly yours, 

L. F. S. FOSTEB. 
575 



GEORGE H. THOMAS. 

lu coQclusion, no more is needed than to quote a few lines con- 
tributed by a lady, the wife of the Medical Director on the staff of 
Thomas — Mrs. Col. R M. Gross. They possess one merit — Truth ^ 
and they speak the opinion of the best minds of the nation : — 

How seldom, in the lapse of centiiries, 
There lives a man so great, that when he dies, 
His record is beyond all eulogies ! 

Yet one such has been with us — simple, grave, 
Upright and noble, resolute and brave, 
To God and duty he his manhood gave. 

Of such rare excellence, that when he died — 
Died in his prime — a startled nation cried, 
•♦This is a loss that cannot be supplied." 

He should have been our next chief magistrate : 
He would have dignified that high estate, 
And by his greatness made his country great. 

When shall we find us such another man, 
So sure in action and so ripe in plan. 
So able every moment's need to span ? 

In all the after annals of this age, 

Shall patriot and statesman, bard and sage, 

Point out as his the one consummate page. 

And through the coming years shall history 
Echo regretfully the people's cry, 
"The loss of Thomas no man could supply! " 

This biographical sketch could have been much more extended 
by the presentation of opinions and explanations expressed and made 
by General Thomas to the writer, but these are withheld at the ex- 
press request of one who has the best right to decide as to their pub- 
lication, and upon the advice of a general oflficei', whose calm judg 
ment almost converts his counsels into commands. 

576 



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